Panel orders reinstatement

Salt Lake County's district attorney has been given three months to fully reinstate a career prosecutor who was first fired, then rehired, then demoted to a desk job.

A civil service panel ordered District Attorney Lohra Miller to make Kent Morgan a felony prosecutor again.

Miller fired the veteran prosecutor last year after claiming he leaked confidential information to the owner of an escort service that was under investigation.

Morgan denied the accusation, and the civil service panel ruled in April that his termination was unsupported by evidence. He was then rehired.

On Friday, the county's Career Service Council ruled that Miller unfairly retaliated against Morgan by refusing to assign him cases or let him appear in court after he returned to the district attorney's office.

County policy prohibits reprisals against employees who file grievances, and Miller could face corrective or disciplinary action by the county mayor.

Miller said in a statement Sunday that the District Attorney's Office acted properly and will request a review of the decision in District Court.

The statement said Morgan's "failure to communicate with his superiors … was a reasonable justification to delay returning Mr. Morgan to a courtroom assignment."

Morgan told KSL-TV he was assigned to do "menial research work" and prohibited from working in court by Miller despite being cleared by the civil service panel to return as a prosecutor.

The panel said in a 10-page decision that there was "no evidentiary basis for the DA's lack of trust" in Morgan.

— Associated Press and Deseret News